1: Introduction -- Some of the ecological values and uses of long-term datasets -- Poor record of long-term ecological monitoring -- Why we wrote this book -- 2: Why monitoring fails -- Characteristics of ineffective monitoring programs -- Other factors contributing to ineffective monitoring programs -- 3: What makes long-term monitoring effective? -- Characteristics of effective monitoring programs -- Little things matter a lot! Some 'tricks of the trade' -- The adaptive monitoring framework -- 4: The problematic, the effective and the ugly – some case studies -- The problematic -- The effective -- Need to wait and see -- The ugly -- 5: The upshot – our general conclusions -- Changes in culture needed to facilitate monitoring -- Good things that can come from non-question based monitoring -- The role of citizen science in long-term monitoring -- The challenge of intellectual property and data sharing -- The challenges in effective monitoring of rare, threatened and endangered species -- The major challenge of keeping monitoring and long-term studies going -- The big issue of integrating different kinds of monitoring -- Approaches to integrate data from different kinds of monitoring – Index.

Summary: Long-term monitoring programs are fundamental to understanding the natural environment and managing major environmental problems. Yet they are often done very poorly and ineffectively. This second edition of Effective Ecological Monitoring describes what makes monitoring programs successful and how to ensure that long-term monitoring studies persist. The book includes new sections comparing surveillance-based and question-based monitoring, analysing environmental observation networks, and provides examples of adaptive monitoring.

1: Introduction -- Some of the ecological values and uses of long-term datasets -- Poor record of long-term ecological monitoring -- Why we wrote this book -- 2: Why monitoring fails -- Characteristics of ineffective monitoring programs -- Other factors contributing to ineffective monitoring programs -- 3: What makes long-term monitoring effective? -- Characteristics of effective monitoring programs -- Little things matter a lot! Some 'tricks of the trade' -- The adaptive monitoring framework -- 4: The problematic, the effective and the ugly – some case studies -- The problematic -- The effective -- Need to wait and see -- The ugly -- 5: The upshot – our general conclusions -- Changes in culture needed to facilitate monitoring -- Good things that can come from non-question based monitoring -- The role of citizen science in long-term monitoring -- The challenge of intellectual property and data sharing -- The challenges in effective monitoring of rare, threatened and endangered species -- The major challenge of keeping monitoring and long-term studies going -- The big issue of integrating different kinds of monitoring -- Approaches to integrate data from different kinds of monitoring – Index.

Long-term monitoring programs are fundamental to understanding the natural environment and managing major environmental problems. Yet they are often done very poorly and ineffectively. This second edition of Effective Ecological Monitoring describes what makes monitoring programs successful and how to ensure that long-term monitoring studies persist. The book includes new sections comparing surveillance-based and question-based monitoring, analysing environmental observation networks, and provides examples of adaptive monitoring.